9 comments:

not the exact day (probably was spring) but the year, 2005. I decided to pedal my first STP (Seattle, WA to Portland, OR), I was 48 years old. From that occasion, I became a regular, bicycle commuter, bicycle club ride leader, and I like to think bicycle advocate.

Yes; it was the first day I rode a two wheel bike. I visit the spot now and again and reflect on what it has lead to. Too many decades ago to remember the date.

I remember my mom taking me shopping, on my 6th birthday for my first two wheeler. What I remember in particular is my mother emphatically telling the salesman that she was only interested in seeing bikes with pneumatic tires, she wanted me to have a real bike. I thought, "'At's my MOM!"

It was candy apple red with a supersonic plane on the front fender.

I remember the day when I realized that having an adult size, lightweight three speed meant I could ride long distances and tested myself by riding 50 miles doing laps around the biggest block in the neighborhood.

The key day was just about a week later when I had realized the implications of that and headed out, on my own without having to ask mom to drive me, for a town 20 miles away. That's the day I became an "avid cyclist."

August 4, 2004 was the first time I rode it. But it was May of that year when I decided I HAD to get a bike. I've been an avid cyclist ever since. Now a racer turned commuter. In May of this year I went to almost bike commuting exclusively as my car was stolen. Car was eventually recovered, but now I only drive it once a week and that's only to make sure it will still start in an emergency.

Hmmm.... April 2009, but I don't remember the date. We rented KHS Green bikes from a local bike shop and rode them around Boston in an attempt to determine what it would be like to cycle for transportation. Never looked back.

"It's like trying to recall the moment relaxation begins. Sometimes there is an instant release, but more often then is only an awakening, with the realization that you've drifted to somewhere pleasant and have been there a while. That's what my transition was like."

A month ago. A friend of mine gave me and old coaster brake bike that had been sitting in his garage for years - he had gotten from a friend who got it a garage sale. It turned out to be about 80% of an old Sears Spaceliner. I cleaned it up some, put new tires on it, put a new LARGER saddle on it, and christened it "Captain Comfy". I ride Capt. Comfy every day - and I feel SO much better, physically. and now? Now I spend a lot of my time looking for parts to complete the bike - to make it look like it did when it was new.